Press Release – EUROPEAN AUTOBEST 2017 FINALIST14 / 10 / 2016

The new Citroën C3, Kia Niro, new Peugeot 3008, SEAT Ateca, and Toyota C-HR have been announced as the finalists for the European ‘AUTOBEST 2017’. These five cars will compete for the new prize of ‘Best Buy Car of Europe in 2017’. The jury of 31 will make their final assessments and cast their votes in the coming weeks, with the winner announced on 15 December.

AUTOBEST is releasing the logo of ‘European AUTOBEST 2017 Finalist’. The five manufacturers are entitled to use the logo in all of their communication and promotion campaigns in the lead up to the announcement of the AUTOBEST 2017 winner.

On November 23/24, the European AUTOBEST Jury will go to the Vairano proving ground near Milano, Italy, for the Final 5 test. “At AUTOBEST we perform some of the most relevant, complex driving tests in the motoring media. Over the last number of years, the car industry has noticed the high quality of our comparative on-road and on-track tests, its excellent organisation and the very professional approach of our Jury members,” stated Ilia Seliktar, President of the AUTOBEST Jury.

The Jury honours Carlos Tavares with the ‘MANBEST 2016’ award for leading the turnaround of the PSA Group in such a short period. In his capacity as Chief Executive Officer, he took difficult but crucial decisions to give back to PSA a financial solidity and to pave the way to success. He was instrumental in restructuring the brand’s product portfolio and accelerated the evolution of the company on the new trends of the automotive industry. In a disruptive period, Carlos Tavares was the ‘disruptive’ executive who managed to shape a future for PSA Group.

The ‘COMPANYBEST 2016’ award goes to Opel Group GmbH. Under the leadership of Dr Karl Thomas Neumann, the company is coming back to sound financial operation. The work of Neumann and his brilliant executive team was, and still is, not an easy one. Nowadays, just having good products is not anymore enough. To be successful as a company much more is needed and at Opel, we can see what that is all about. Opel’s turnaround is an example of “German precision and sculptural artistry” to quote one of the leading ideas Opel uses in design, but that same approach could be used for the entire company.

The impressive e-performance of the new Opel Ampera-e convinced all the Jury members to vote it ‘ECOBEST 2016’ award, the European leading accolade for the most relevant green products and technologies. Ampera-e belongs to a small group of electric vehicles that will make or break the future of electromobility. The first independent information on the real autonomy gives confidence that Ampera-e is the right answer for shaping the future of electromobility in Europe.

This year’s ‘DESIGNBEST’ award goes to Thomas Ingenlath, the Chief Designer at Volvo Cars. Entering this Hall of Fame, reserved only for the well-known car designers of our time, Ingenlath receives a European recognition for his outstanding job at the Swedish car manufacturer. Thomas Ingenlath has 24 years of experience within the automotive industry, having worked in lead design positions at Audi, Volkswagen and Škoda. In 2012, he joined the Volvo Car Group as the Senior Vice President at the Volvo Design Center in Gothenburg. Since his arrival, the design direction at Volvo Cars has undergone an intense transformation. He guided the creation of a new design language and the introduction of Volvo’s new scalable platform by developing a series of very successful concept cars.

AUTOBEST Jury members now represent 31 European countries, making it the largest Independent Motoring Jury in the world by the number of represented countries. Following this announcement at the Paris Mondial de L’Automobile, all 31 jury members voted on all of the Finalists of the AUTOBEST 2017 competition and the other awards communicated today.

The AUTOBEST Jury is also paying attention to the efforts the automotive industry is making. Investments, new automotive job opportunities for people, spending funds for green cars and technologies, the support for different regions of Europe are carefully checked and appreciated by the Jury. New in-car technologies and connectivity are also under the scrutiny of the Jury. In total, eight awards are now dedicated to these achievements in the following categories; MANBEST, COMPANYBEST, ECOBEST, DESIGNBEST, TECHNOBEST, SAFETYBEST, SMARTBEST and SPORTBEST. Today AUTOBEST is releasing the first four. The remaining award winners will be communicated at a later date.

The awards ceremony will take place in the first half of February 2017. Every year the AUTOBEST Awards Gala brings together the top executives of various companies. Therefore, it has become one of the only annual European events where competitors gather at the same table with great pleasure. The AUTOBEST Awards Gala has evolved over 16 years from a distinguished dinner at a five-star location to a European Gala with world-class artistic content, gourmet menu and a unique Grand Finale for the AUTOBEST Award. The 2016 Awards Gala, was held in Teatro Vetra (former Versace) in Milan. Customers from around Europe can get in contact with the lottery organised by AUTOBEST, which allows for their participation at the Gala.

ENDS

About AUTOBEST

The AUTOBEST organisation was created in 2001 with the revolutionary concept of “best buy car” available on the European market. For a car to become an AUTOBEST winner, it must represent the best offer for most European customers. Price, service network, spare parts distribution and versatility are the most important criteria in the voting process. Design and new technologies are also becoming more important criteria for voting. AUTOBEST uses a transparent voting system, with a complex matrix of 13 criteria to decide the winner.